In history, Liu Bei failed to dominate the world, and it is not a pity to restore the Han family, because Liu Bei was too far away from this goal from the beginning, but for Cao Cao, this is indeed a close matter, he was once very close to this goal, but unfortunately Cao Cao failed to grasp the opportunity. Pen × fun × Pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

【Distant Distance】

After Liu Bei obtained Jingzhou and Yizhou, he was already qualified to dominate the world, but at this time, he gradually distanced himself from his ally Sun Quan, did not encircle Sun Quan, and was finally betrayed by him, resulting in failure.

But to say, even after the alliance between Liu Bei and Sun Quan is consolidated, it is not so simple for Liu Bei to seize the world, take the Battle of Xiangfan as an example, after Guan Yu flooded the Seventh Army, this is already a great opportunity to weaken Cao Cao's power, if Liu Bei goes out of Hanzhong, Sun Quan sends troops north again, the threat to Cao Cao will be great. However, even so, it is impossible for Liu Bei's group to win at one time, because Liu Bei's strength at that time was not enough, in Jingzhou, Guan Yu fought in three counties, with limited troops and resources, even if he succeeded in capturing Xiangfan, there was still a bunch of messes to clean up after the flood, and it was difficult to further expand the advantage.

And Liu Bei's army in Yizhou was also exhausted by the battle of Hanzhong, and at most he could create momentum, but it was difficult to expand the results of the battle, and it was even more difficult to defeat Chang'an and Luoyang in one go.

Overall, when Liu Bei was there, he didn't have enough strength to swallow Cao Cao, even if Sun Quan was added, it was not enough, so although the matter of dominating the world was Liu Bei's goal, he was actually far from it.

【Cao Cao's Opportunity】

Unlike Liu Bei, Cao Cao definitely has a chance to dominate the world.

As early as the thirteenth year of Jian'an (208), Cao Cao had basically controlled the north, and because Liu Cong surrendered and occupied Jingzhou, at this time it can be said that Cao Cao was already in sight, and the other princes basically had no threat to him, Liu Zhang was weakly guarding Yizhou, although Sun Quan was strong, but he had been semi-surrounded, Han Sui and Ma Chao were weak, and they were nominally obedient to the imperial court, and the Gongsun of Liaodong was not a threat.

Cao Cao buried a good situation in this good situation, did not listen to Jia Xu's words to stabilize Jingzhou and sent troops down the river, knowing that the south might be plague but did not take precautions, after encountering Zhou Yu and others, he also knew that Huang Gai might be a fraudulent surrender but ignored it at will, and finally defeated Chibi, Jiangling was also taken away, Cao Cao did not cherish this opportunity to cross the Yangtze River, and then suffered several losses on Sun Quan's side.

The second obvious opportunity Cao Cao was after the capture of Hanzhong, when Liu Bei and Sun Quan almost broke up because of the matter of Jingzhou, Hanzhong is the gateway to Yizhou, Yizhou was originally robbed by Liu Bei, just occupied, the foundation is not deep, and Cao Cao has great righteousness, so Yizhou was turbulent at that time, if Cao Cao took the opportunity to go south, it was likely to expel Liu Bei, but Cao Cao did not look forward to Shu, and sat back and watched the opportunity to lose.

[The reason why Cao Cao failed to dominate the world]

There are many reasons why Cao Cao failed to dominate the world, including bad diplomacy, getting carried away, strategic mistakes, old age and demoralization, lack of think tanks in the later period, and birth factors, etc., but there is another very important reason is "kinship suppression".

(1) Kinship suppression. This word can be simply understood as cronyism, but the phenomenon of kinship suppression is in many princes, such as Yuan Shao appointed his sons and nephews as the assassins of various places, and the relatives of the Sun family also occupy high positions in Jiangdong, so the Cao family and the Xiahou family are also very popular under Cao Cao.

But under Yuan Shao's command, Lu Yi, as a general with a foreign surname, can lead a large army to crusade against Gongsun Zhan, and Zhou Yu, Lu Meng, and Lu Xun under Sun Quan can also lead the main force to fight alone, which is basically not under Cao Cao, like Zhang Liao, Xu Huang, Yu Ban, Le Jin and others at most lead some troops to quell the rebellion, like the command of launching a large-scale battle has basically nothing to do with these generals with foreign surnames, either Cao Cao himself or Cao Cao's relatives are in charge of the troops, like the first crusade against Hanzhong and pacifying Liangzhou led by Xiahou Yuan, The conquest of Guan Yu and Cao Cao also sent Cao Ren to lead the troops.

And in Chinese history, among the Han people, how many people who commanded the foreign army only had their own relatives and eventually ruled the world? One no! Liu Bang, Liu Xiu, Li Shimin, Zhu Yuanzhang and others who dominate the world are basically generals with foreign surnames.

And very few of the generals with foreign surnames under Cao Cao brought them out, Zhang Liao, Xu Huang, and Zhang He all defected to Cao Cao later, Yu Ban was recommended to Cao Cao by Wang Lang, and only Lejin was brought out by Cao Cao, but what about Lejin's ability and status? Cao Cao is far inferior to the Jiangdong Sun family at this point, and there are many relatives, but the old ministers of the third generation have Cheng Pu, Huang Gai, Han Dang and other people, and the later show also has Lu Meng, Lu Xun and others.

The phenomenon of kinship suppression has been more obvious in the Cao Cao period, the Cao family and the Xiahou clan not only have many generals, but also have high status and great power, and the generals with foreign surnames have few opportunities, and it is difficult to get ahead, and this phenomenon has reached its peak in the Cao Pi period. In the final analysis, although the relatives are loyal, their ability is not guaranteed, and if they want to dominate the world, the ability of the generals under their command must be strong. However, the generals are capable, and it is useless if you don't use them.

You don't see, the generals who destroyed Shu in the later period were Deng Ai and Zhong Hui, and the people who destroyed Wu were Jia Chong and Wang Jun, among whom there was a surname Cao, Xiahou, and Sima!

(2) Poor diplomacy. Cao Cao's disdain for diplomacy in official history has made many things more effective with half the effort, which has been discussed in detail in the previous article, so I won't say much.

(3) Strategic mistakes. After the Battle of Chibi, Cao Cao focused on Sun Quan, who occupied the Yangtze River, but ignored Liu Bei, allowing him to take advantage of the opportunity to develop, and then forced Han Sui, Ma Chao and others, who were already semi-subordinate, which was definitely a strategic mistake.

(4) Origin factors. Cao Cao was born in a eunuch family, so the world's evaluation of him will not be too good, but Cao Cao's actions have no good reputation, so the impact is actually limited, after all, Zhu Yuanzhang is still begging and still dominates the world.

(5) Old age and demoralization. After Cao Cao got older, his ambitions declined, and after occupying Hanzhong, he could not look forward to Shu, and was satisfied with the initial results.

(6) Get carried away. This is Cao Cao's old problem, too smooth sailing, Cao Cao is easy to get carried away, but the success fell short, the Battle of Nanyang and the Battle of Chibi are typical examples.

(7) Lack of think tanks in the later stage. This is not to say that there are no top strategists around Cao Cao in the later period, after Xun Yu, Xun You, and Guo Jia, Cao Cao still has Jia Xu and others around him, but Jia Xu is not reused, Liu Ye, Sima Yi and others are low-minded, Cao Cao is often arbitrary, and the result is that Cao Cao is clearly surrounded by strategists, but not many people's opinions have been adopted.

Now many people think that it is a pity that Liu Bei and Zhuge Liang failed to dominate the world, but in fact, Shu Han has always been very far away from this goal, and it is really a pity to talk about it, but it is a pity that Cao Wei Group, as the strongest force in the Three Kingdoms period, failed to dominate the world, which is not only in Cao Cao, but also in the Cao Pi period, others have no chance, they really wasted the opportunity.

ps: Mid-Autumn Festival is back, now it's back, don't worry about the update, it's back to normal tomorrow